"TAKITIMU."

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 18 August 1909, Page 4

"TAKITIMU."

HON. J. CARROLL'S ANCESTRAI*-

» CANOE.

The following, is the text in part of th« address presented to the Hon. J. Carroll, Acting-Prime Minister, at Papawai, by the Maori tribes of his ancestral cane* " Takitimn " : —

To you who are now as the Prime Minister, y«s, to you O Son of Fame"; may blessings guard your eoul ! Be thou watchful and guard the fort on every side lest disaster come to our people and country. Be not' aa the eel-fisher, who nods in unconcern, but as the war sentinel, who must ever wakeful be.

Climb thou to the higher altitudes of action, to . the twelfth heaven, to the heaven that was reached by your god r lik« ancestor, Tawaki, who sought and found Maikuku Makaka and took Hapai-o-Mfturi to wife. Fiom them"~you sprang to «ur land of H£s and light. Do not forget but turn thou now and again to the shadowy , land whence we came, to tie homes of our ancestors far away, to Great-Hawaiiki, to Long Hawaiiki, to Hawaiiki-of-great-clistanee, to the Place of Spirits, the land where man was formed from the Earth by Great Tane-of-the-Sky, and had life first breathed into him. Give forth our genealogies and see that we hurt not by evolution. Grasp firmly the famous paddles of your ancestral canoe, " Takitimu," .the paddlee " Rapangate-Afcinnku," and "Rapanga-te-Atiranga." With these paddles you should conquer the vast and .powerful waves that may beset nY the 'towering crested ws» about to break,-, the swirling, foaming, broken .billow and the huge wave that Tise s like a mountain and manacea our fortunes. Be akilful in the use of. the paddlerplunge it quickly on this side and on that. Let its flashing- and its spray shine to- the far horizon. All is now propitious. We appeal now to that soul and spin* that has come to the soil, the national breast, to bold fart to us, to guard us, and do for us that which will be for our good. Be firm. . " Our greetings to you, O Turn Kara, who have now- attained the honourable position, of Acting-Prime Minister of New Zealand.